Does the Alice Springs News have a role? If …

Recent Comments by Michael L

Will we say sorry to the Abandoned Generation in 10 years?The Stolen Generations policy helped stop eldest Aboriginal sons from inheriting the property of their early non-Aboriginal settler fathers.
In his biography, Yami Lester talks about seeing his father once at a distance, when he left food for Yami and his mother as they walked through the pastoral station.
Aboriginal families in Alice still know which non-Aboriginal families they are related to by blood, but not by marriage.
Try to imagine Central Australian society today if all those fathers had recognised their offspring!
The reality of Alice Springs is that many of us are part of such extended families: By blood or marriage or culture.
Perhaps it’s time to use We rather than finger-point at Us or Them.
Government carers are highly skilled but transient, and can’t provide the long-term relationships needed for proper child development.
At our best, Alice Springs is one mixed-race extended family.
We should still be family when some of us are at our worst. That is the only way to help our future generations grow into proper citizens. After all, the Closing the Gap report said social exclusion is the root of the problem.
Families with errant children are often overwhelmed, cannot do more, and have no rellies who are able to help.
Thus, it will “take a village to raise a child.”
Perhaps our elders from all groups can co-host community conversations toward investing in that infrastructure?

You can vote No with love: Alice priestLaws are created to regulate what people are already doing.
Thousands of same-sex couples already exist.
Marriage simply gives those couples the security of having a single document that confirms the legal status of their existing relationship, in any state or country.
Thus, marriage is about people being equal before the law.
Equality is a fundamental concept in our legal system, and a basic tenet of international human rights.
We should not have a plebiscite to confirm a human right! It only serves to expose the bigotry of some people and religions.
In our world today, we need to learn more ways to work together!

You can vote No with love: Alice priestPeople value their personal freedom and don’t like someone telling them how to vote, but voting No reduces others’ personal freedom.
Our society needs more ways to bring people together, and marriage is a wonderful institution for that purpose.

You can vote No with love: Alice priestI am sad that you believe celibate priests like you are not “ideal building blocks of society” just because you do not choose a wife and children.
That is not true in this town! An ideal building block of Alice Springs society is acceptance of sexual differences – including yours.
We would never discriminate against you just because you do not procreate!
Alice Springs supports your choice to make a lifelong commitment to love through celibacy. In turn, you should support other people’s desires make their own lifelong commitment to love through marriage.
We need as many ways as possible for people to make lifelong commitments to love, because it brings people together and builds a stronger Alice Springs.
It is the will of our loving God for us all to vote YES.

Surprising conservative on council: Jacinta PriceJohn, thanks for clarifying, and for raising a key question relevant to Council diversity.
You say: “I think most of us have found that human nature has common traits and behavioural patterns in all groups, whether male or female, regardless of gender, colour, age or political leanings.”
Recent research (e.g. Everett 2016 Dark Matter of the Mind) has found that such innate “human nature” does not exist. Our only nature is the freedom to adapt to our environmental and our cultural contexts.
Alice Springs has so many different contexts, that more diverse “traits and behaviour patterns” on the Council may be our town’s best survival strategy!